PNG NATIONAL GENERAL ELECTIONS - A COMMENTARY ON FINDING TRUE LEADERS

 

The PNG National Parliament.

True Leaders Rare to Find . . . .

 
By TONY PALME in JIWAKA

ANYONE may claim to be a good leader that has the peoples' interest at heart but the genuine ones are like rare ruby or sapphire - they are quite hard to find.
 
In this time and age, money and material wealth seem to take the upper hand in deciding the outcome in an election simply because voters favor towards the candidates luring them with cash, goodies, and sweet talk seem to blindfold and cloud their judgement.

The trend in PNG politics in recent elections is that the candidate or party with more money and resources is likely to win the peoples' favour and enter Parliament.
 
This is very dangerous as people cannot find candidates who fall within 'peoples choice' or those with leadership qualities, thus, they keep voting in people with vested interest and cry the same cry every election.
 
Who do we blame? The answer is we as voters have to blame ourselves because we have not done proper research and identified leaders with values and good character but always go for money leaders instead.
 
There are genuine leaders; men and women out there that have the heart to serve the people to the best of their ability and provide a servant-style leadership but they cannot because they do not have enough resource like money or popularity.

The Last Knight Standing: Sir Julius Chan meeting his voters in New Ireland. A founding father of PNG, Sir Julius is a man of wisdom.

 
The candidates with more money are more popular and have the bargaining power to muster the absolute majority.

 

The electoral laws forbids candidates from dishing out cash and using undue influence to convince voters in their favour as this is illegal and a corrupt practice but yet candidates are ignoring it and continue to bribe voters.
 
The mindset problem with the people is that they consider a candidate who gives them money, buy them cartons of beer, slaughter them pigs, and do them all sorts of favors is seen as a true leader.
 
Voters refer to such candidates as 'action man or woman' and term the candidates who do not give them anything as 'greedy or selfish' which the complete opposite.
 
If our people (voters) continue to allow this mindset to guide their power of choice during elections, they will continue to suffer.
 
Five years is not five days or five months for us to waste our one vote which is very crucial in deciding our future destiny and that of our children.

An NGO that works with people with a disability delivery crutches and wheel chairs to the needy. 

 
Corruption has deeply embedded itself into the core of society just because we the people, starting from the family unit which stems right from our individual mindsets are starting it.
 
We cannot blame a Prime Minister, a governor or an open MP when they fail to perform to our expectations.
 
We have voted them. We should have known better in the first place and chose wisely. We can only blame ourselves because of our own stupidity.
 
We are living in the 21st century and should act like civilized people - both voters and candidates.
 
Candidates should refrain from dishing out cash and goodies or resorting to employing bullying tactics like force and intimidation to influence voters decision.

Former Morobe Governor Kelly Naru attempting to win his seat back. He was quite popular because of his support of churches through tithes.

 
Voters should be respected and given the space and time to have the peace of mind in exercising their democratic rights in electing a candidate which they feel should best represent them.
 
If we want a free, fair and safe 2022 election, we must all act like civilized citizens.
 
As civilized citizens, we should not move from campaign house to campaign house, chasing candidates to consolidate cash and goodies, move around in truckloads with face and body paintings by committing suicide or betting our lives just for one candidate - this is primitive mentality.
 
We (voters/supporters) have a family to feed and cloth. Election is a seasonal event.
 
The candidates that we are betting our lives on will not attend to our daily needs for five years but the decisions we make at the polling booth will determine our tomorrow.

The popular slogan adopted in the Highlands 'nentra tentra' which means 'kaikai na givim' must stop because this is plain stupid as it enable voters to keep voting in the wrong or corrupt persons.
 
Voting along tribal lines or block voting is also a practice that prevents voters from identifying quality leaders.
 
People must be allowed to exercise their rights freely without fear of being intimidated if they find that their own family, clansman or tribesman do not possess the qualities they look for and vote another person.
 
This election presents us with an opportunity to change our uncivilized mindset and maintain the integrity and credibility of the election process to find good leaders who can represent us in the true spirit of our Constitution.
 
May the best candidates prevail so that we see leaders who are 'peoples choice' enter Parliament in few months time.